Spotted in House

These musclemen spent over an hour on the road outside Parliament,with passers-by wondering if some film shoot was taking place.

Spotted in House

Bollywood actor Emraan Hashmi on Wednesday descended on Parliament to promote his forthcoming movie The Dirty Picture. But as luck would have it,he chose the wrong day to visit Parliament,with both Houses getting adjourned for the day even before he entered the Parliament complex. While many MPs,who witnessed Hashmi becoming the cynosure of camera lenses,didnt recognise him and were seen asking passers-by who he was,many others took exception to the actor trying to gain publicity for his movie in Parliament. Also,the horde of a dozen-plus bouncers,who were accompanying the actor,were left stranded outside the Parliament complex,after the security staff didnt allow them inside. These musclemen spent over an hour on the road outside Parliament,with passers-by wondering if some film shoot was taking place.

CLAMPDOWN

WITH allegations of largescale embezzlement of Central funds in the Northeastern states,Minister of Development of Northeast Region Paban Singh Ghatowar is getting them audited by a third party. The ministry has hired an independent organisation to do the audit and give feedback on the scale of irregularities so that corrective steps could be taken. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier told the minister that money is no problem when it comes to development of Northeast region. Its utilisation has always been the biggest concern in Delhi though.

PAWAR BACKING

RELEASING a special issue of Think India Quarterly,a journal edited by his NCP colleague D P Tripathi,at the India International Centre on Tuesday,Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar told the audience that generally he does not attend any book release function unless he has read the book. For the first time,he was releasing something he had not read. That is because D P Tripathi has just given it to me,said the NCP chief. Obviously,his speech contained references to points raised by other speakers but nothing about the contents of the journal whose special issue was on Indian agriculture.

GENDER TALK

NATIONAL Commission for Women chairperson Mamta Sharma is quite radical when it comes to her brief of working for womens rights. So,when told by a member about how state commissions usually use the logo of the national commission for all their functions,Sharma quipped: If you ask me,something needs to be done about our logo. It shows a woman bending. That is like giving the match away even before the game has begun. She was talking on the sidelines of a conference on trafficking organised jointly by NCW and NHRC held on Wednesday at Vigyan Bhavan.

WIN-WIN

WHILE South Block savoured its victory on Tuesday in the United Nations over China after a gap of 35 years to make it to the UN joint inspection unit from the Asia-Pacific region,commiserations were also in order for Chinese Ambassador to India Zhang Yan. The affable Chinese diplomat was Beijings candidate for the job,but he managed only 77 votes in the direct contest with Indias A Gopinathan who secured 106 of the 183 votes cast. On the other hand,Zhangs admirers here are happy that he gets to stay longer in Delhi.